speaking of THE KING OF KONG...

just saw THE KING OF KONG again, this time at the kendall with a gang that included in, rowan, jeff, kim, dan, ray, M, and dennis. a fun group, and from their reactions and post-film chatter, very appreciative of the film's goodness. a surprising bonus, three of the film's subjects—twin galaxies' founder walter day, billy mitchell disciple brian kuh, and, frack, can't remember his name, but i believe he was credited in the film as the crystal castles *foot* playing champion (fer realz)—were in the audience. they weren't listed or introduced as guests at the screeniing. they must've just watched the film, or at least the latter part of it. i was a little surprised, and wondered at possible ego-stroking motivation, but jeff pointed out that these guys are based and living in new hampshire. what w the film in limited release, a boston screening would be the most convenient one for them to check out. once they were recognized by exiting moviegoers, they drew a decent crowd. we all paused to give them the eye on the way out, but didn't glom. to be honest, no questions really came to mind. nothing that wouldn't actually be critical or sarcastic... directed at that kuh fellow, not the others.

i wonder how he took the audience reaction to his appearances on film...

please, go see the film before reading any further, as * SPOILERy * information follows... in boston, it's playing for a week at kendall square, and i believe it will start screening at the coolidge corner theater's minimax theater. not sure how long. check the site for other locations...


anyhow, rowan did some poking around online after we got back and found some rather disappointing news... in july of this year, billy mitchell reportedly set a new record high score on donkey kong.

digging that up got me started on looking for more news. after the movie, dennis mentioned that there's supposedly a dramatic feature, to be based on the events of KING OF KONG, in the works. turns out, it's the documentary's creators who are reportedly working on a script for a dramatization of the billy-vs-steve story. check out the creator's first thoughts on casting options. me, i'm rooting for ralph macchio and william zabka. =)

rowan actually made the suggestion of FIREFLY's nathan fillion for weibe before i found any info about it online.

sorry. mtvnews was the only source i could expediently find for this info. not my typical go-to source for news.

oh, found one line of corroboration of the feature film development in a new york magazine quickie...

also discovered that CHASING GHOSTS, a documentary following the lives of the arcade game high scorers featured in the 1982 life magazine spread mentioned in KING OF KONG, has been making the festival rounds this year. i haven't seen anything about a wide release date, but check out the movie trailer and website, particularly the "players" page. looks like there's more than one story in this collection of characters, eh?

man, i REALLY want to play that elevator board from donkey kong...

keep on beepin on~